Bub and Grandma's Restaurant

Natural leaven first, sandwiches second

The bread came first here, and everything else was arranged around it. Bub and Grandma’s Bread began as a wholesale bakery in 2015, built by Andrew Kadin on naturally leavened sourdough, and Bub and Grandma’s Restaurant followed in Glassell Park in 2022 after a long search for the right neighbourhood corner. It turned loaves known through wholesale accounts and farmers markets into something you could sit down and eat.

The menu treats that bread as the point rather than as the wrapper. Daily pastries, cold and full lunch sandwiches, salads and sides fill out the counter, but the sourdough carries the identity. Kadin’s idea was to put winning combinations of ingredients between the loaves, so a sandwich is the project rather than a compromise between bakery and restaurant.

Bread-led and casual

The approach shows up in the named dishes. The avocado and green harissa baguette sets fresh avocado against spicy green harissa; the tahini and avocado sandwich takes the same bread-first format in a plant-forward, Middle Eastern direction. A wheatberry salad and a curried tofu bowl stretch the menu past sandwiches without leaving the grain behind.

The room is an art deco corner building in northeast Los Angeles, which gives counter service a better backdrop than most bakery storefronts. Coffee is in the mix, with craft beer and wine alongside the food. Bub and Grandma’s Bread also continues at farmers markets including Hollywood, Altadena and Culver City, so the restaurant is one node in a wider bread network rather than a replacement for it.

Order the house bread

A first order should put the loaf at the centre. Take a naturally leavened sourdough with you, or eat the bread in sandwich form with the avocado and green harissa baguette or the tahini and avocado. If you want something less bread-dominant but still from the same kitchen, the wheatberry salad and the curried tofu bowl make sense as supporting orders, and the pastry case is worth reading before you decide.

There is an evening identity too. BG Nites is a Sunday and Monday jazz and dinner series with rotating musicians, a cultural layer on a place that started as a wholesale sourdough bakery and became a daytime restaurant. The through-line is still Kadin’s bread: naturally leavened, and built to be eaten as part of a meal rather than admired from a distance.